mother worry

Our new town is different from our old town in so many ways. But I am only going to talk about one right now.

I have never seen so many fashion conscious little bitty girls in my life. At the mall I saw a little girl, no more than seven, begging her mom to let her go into Banana Republic. What?

At seven I didn't even care if I wore clothes, definitely didn't care where they came from.

My nearly twelve year old girl doesn't care either. She has a few opinions. Mostly, what color they are and are the loose enough. She prefers her clothing actually touch her body in a few places as possible.

The kids in her old school didn't really care.

Here, every store I go into I see these very young girls discussing clothes as if they are twenty year old fashionistas.

Don't we expend enough angst the entire rest of our lives wondering whether we look ok, whether we fit in, whether people approve of us? Why start at seven, eight, nine?

So, the other part is, my girl will be starting this new school. Will she be surrounded by stylish babes who will be judging her because they can tell her clothes came off a clearance rack somewhere other than the Gap or whatever is hip these days? She seems to be oblivious to all of that and may not even know unless someone says something directly to her. But still...

I want so much for her to be accepted and liked for who she is. But I guess she's entering that phase where it is very difficult to be accepted for just being yourself. 6th grade + is all about judging and being judged, from what I've seen.

I guess I just do my part, turn her over to God and hold on to my hat!